This invention relates to a retractable safety light support assembly for towing vehicles and the like and more particularly to such an assembly which permits the safety lights to be positioned in a normal upstanding disposition and to be pivoted into a retracted position behind the cab of the vehicle when the vehicle passes beneath low clearance structures.
Emergency vehicles such as tow trucks generally, if not always, include emergency or safety lights mounted on an elevated portion thereon. On a tow truck these lights are normally mounted in bubbles or a continuous container bar on the top of the frame of the wrecker, i.e., the frame which supports some of the winching equipment. However, in low clearance situations, such as entry into a garage, the bubbles or light bar may engage the structure and can be easily broken. Consequently, various arrangements for moving lights from the elevated position to a retracted position have been proposed by the prior art. For example, in Hartman U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,945 a bracket for carrying a light is mounted on the rear of the cab and can be retracted by a lever extending through and into the cab, a roller within the cab engaging a notch on the lever to secure it. Since the bracket is supported by a simple lever only a single light can be carried by such a construction, and if the vehicle is jolted such as on rough roads, the roller and notch may accidently disengage. In Bergman U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,427 a torsion bar extends across and is pivoted on a flange at the rear of the winching frame, the bar being welded to a light carrying bracket mounted at the outboard side at each end of the frame and extending to the rear edge of the flange. A lever welded to the torsion bar cooperates with a notch on a plate secured to one end of the frame and may be manipulated to pivot the torsion bar and thus the light brackets. However, this construction could not be used when the vehicle has a light bar, i.e., an elongated light container. Moreover, on some tow trucks braces extend from the rear edge of the flange of the winching frame for additional support and the location of the braces relative to the flange would preclude a torsion bar extending across the vehicle, while in other winching frames the design of the flange is such that it is incapable of carrying a torsion bar.